🌸ソーシャル・ビューと点字デジタルアートSocial View and Braille Digital Art.🌸

What is Social Viewing?

Social Viewing generally refers to the attempt for sighted and non-sighted people to appreciate an object, such as a work of art or a sports game, together and to share their respective perceptions and experiences to deepen mutual understanding and create new ways of appreciating things.

Originally, this concept evolved from activities where sighted people would verbally describe what they saw to visually impaired people, or use their sense of touch to help them understand art. However, the essence of Social Viewing is not just the transfer of information, but the sharing of feelings and interpretations through dialogue, leading to new perspectives and discoveries.

In recent years, the concept of Social Viewing has been adopted not only for art appreciation but also in various other fields, such as watching sports. For example, during a sports game, efforts are being made to share not only visual information through words and touch but also sounds, vibrations, and emotions, allowing visually impaired people to enjoy the excitement and atmosphere of the event.

The key points of Social Viewing are:

Prioritizing two-way dialogue over one-sided explanations
Recognizing that sight is not the only valuable sense
Respecting and sharing differences in perception and experience
Creating new discoveries and interpretations

Social Viewing is attracting attention not just as a way to bridge the information gap, but also as an effective method for diverse groups of people to understand each other and enjoy things together.

Common points between Braille Digital Art and Social Viewing:

Inclusive Perspective: Both share the goal of creating a society where everyone, regardless of disability, can experience and share art. Braille Digital Art encourages the participation of people with visual impairments in the creation process, while Social Viewing emphasizes shared experiences with people who have different perceptions.
Promoting Communication: The dialogue between visually impaired individuals and specialists during the creation of Braille Digital Art, as well as the dialogue between participants in Social Viewing, deepens mutual understanding and creates new forms of communication.
Creating New Forms of Expression and Experience: Braille Digital Art, through the collaboration of AI technology and specialists, opens up new possibilities for expression for people with visual impairments. Social Viewing brings new appreciative experiences to all participants by sharing different perceptions.
Utilization of Diverse Senses: Braille Digital Art aims for multi-sensory expression that combines sight, touch, and hearing. Similarly, Social Viewing encourages the emphasis and sharing of senses and experiences other than sight.

There are a few key differences between Braille Digital Art and Social Viewing:

Differences in Focus: Braille Digital Art emphasizes the proactive involvement of people with visual impairments in creation. Social View, on the other hand, focuses on viewing existing works together and sharing the experience.
Differences in Purpose: The main purpose of Braille Digital Art is to establish new forms of expression for people with visual impairments and to promote their participation in artistic activities. The main purpose of Social View is to deepen mutual understanding and present new ways of appreciating art by having people with different perceptions experience art together.
Creative Process: Braille Digital Art has a unique creative process where the intentions of a person with a visual impairment are brought to life by AI and experts. Social View does not involve a specific creative process; it’s a viewing experience centered on dialogue.
Output Format: Braille Digital Art produces concrete works such as braille, images, and audio. The main outputs of Social View are the experience itself and the insights and relationships gained from it.

Shared Challenges to Be Addressed

Challenges for Braille Digital Art to Address:

Establishing and Evaluating Artistic Merit: As a new form of expression, it’s necessary to establish and evaluate its artistic value. We must incorporate feedback from a diverse range of viewers and strive to improve the quality of the work.
Maintaining the Autonomy of Artists with Visual Impairments: As support from AI and experts becomes stronger, we must continually review and improve the creative process to ensure that the intentions and sensibilities of the artists with visual impairments are fully reflected in the final work.
Continuous Improvement of Accessibility: We need to focus not only on developing user-friendly interfaces for people with visual impairments but also on developing technologies that allow people with diverse disabilities to be involved in the creation process.
Addressing Ethical Issues: We must give due consideration to ethical issues such as copyright and originality when using AI, as well as the protection of the privacy of individuals with visual impairments.

Challenges for Social View to Address:

Fostering High-Quality Dialogue: We need to improve facilitation techniques and find ways to enhance the quality of conversations, encouraging constructive and profound dialogue among participants.
Meeting Diverse Needs: Flexible program design is required to accommodate the diverse needs of participants, such as the degree and experience of visual impairment, as well as the art knowledge of sighted individuals.
Deepening Understanding of Artworks: The goal is not merely to transmit information, but to design a viewing experience that allows each participant to engage with the essence of the work and gain a deep understanding.
Sustained Activities and Outreach: We must move beyond one-off events and offer continuous opportunities for Social View. It is essential to widely disseminate its significance and value to society.

Potential for Collaboration Between Braille Digital Art and Social View

Works created through Braille Digital Art can be excellent material for Social View. The artists with visual impairments who created the works can provide a deeper appreciation experience by sharing their intentions and creative process with Social View participants. Additionally, braille and audio explanations of the works would be crucial for information sharing during Social View sessions.

Conversely, feedback from Social View participants would be a valuable opportunity for Braille Digital Art creators to discover new possibilities and areas for improvement in their work.

We believe that by linking Braille Digital Art and Social View in the Himeji area, we can create new art experiences based on local culture and increase opportunities for diverse groups of people to engage with culture together.